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Medicine is grounded in the natural sciences, among which biology stands out with regard to the understanding of human physiology and conditions that cause dysfunction (i.e. pathophysiology). Ironically, evolutionary biology is a relatively disregarded field, and its relevance for the understanding of disease processes has grossly been underestimated. There are several misconceptions that have contributed to this omission. One is that evolution is deemed a slow process. For example, with regard to humans there is controversy about how much modern human populations have deviated - genetically and behaviourally – from our ancestors in the distant past. Growing evidence suggests that humans continue to evolve, though predictions of what is going to change in the next couple of generations are difficult to make. When looking at the bauplan of our species, it is certainly true that humans walk on two legs, have no fur, use tools, make war, develop slowly, care intensely for offspring, and have exceptionally large and efficient brains for a primate of our body size. A more detailed look, however, reveals that changing ecological contingencies, partly in relation to cultural evolution, have brought about many changes, including adaptations to dietary innovations, as well as adaptations to the exposure to pathogens such as malaria etc. some of which evolved in response to changes in the human environment.From a medical point of view, it is more than obvious that many adaptations to past ecologies have turned into risk factors for somatic disease and psychological disorder, among which epidemics of autoimmune diseases including allergies, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, as well as several forms of cancer stand out. In addition, depression, anxiety and other psychiatric conditions add to the list. But do these insights help fight disease? Beyond any doubt, yes. Many potential solutions pertain to lifestyle changes such as dietary measures, stress reduction, physical exercise, etc., the success of which is meagre, partly, because pathological changes in the individuum develop slowly and it takes at least equally long to rewind the wheel.What is of immediate importance to recognise is that the slowness of evolutionary changes only concerns macroanatomical features of humans. In contrast, most clinicians are oblivious to the fact that evolution has its place in everyday practice, that is, the fight of the human organism against rapidly changing pathogens and rapidly changing genomes of cancer cells. So, taken together the understanding of evolutionary processes in medicine is not just an academic exercise, it is imperative to find cures for the most prevalent diseases across the globe.Other misconceptions concern views suggesting that organisms are designed similar to machines, which are optimised solutions for their purpose. Instead, as Nesse (2009) and other leading scholars have repeatedly pointed out, organisms are full of compromises shaped by natural selection to maximize reproduction, not necessarily wellbeing. Finally, there is little evidence for claims made at times in the medical literature that common heritable diseases are caused by a limited number of defective genes. In contrast, evolutionary medicine proposes that complex gene-environment interactions and the pleiotropic action of genes leading to design compromises are involved in the causation of disease.Taken together, there is good reason to propose that evolutionary thinking needs to be implemented in medical curricula. To date, however, this has barely happened in medical schools throughout the world. One problem in this regard is that there is a shortage of textbooks suitable to introduce evolutionary biology early in medical curricula. This is necessary, as we assert, because students need to endorse this approach from the very first semester, to abandon common views that evolution is interesting, but not mandatory for the understanding of disease.

The conference aims at bringing together internationally highly recognized scientists from various fields of medicine. The ultimate goal of the conference is to create a state-of-the-art symposium with sufficient room of discussion of the role of evolution in medicine, and what knowledge about evolutionary processes can contribute to develop novel treatment strategies.

Oxford University Press has accepted to publish the work and outcome of the conference under the title: Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Medicine.

The conference is funded through a grant by the Fritz-Thyssen Stiftung.

09.08.2017, 18.00 Uhr (nicht öffentlich)Fellow Lecture:
Beyond the Da Vinci Code and the Voynich Manuscript: Towards a Social History of Early Modern Cryptography
Prof. Dr. Benedek Láng (Guest of the Rector),

16.08.2017, 18.00 Uhr (nicht öffentlich)Fellow Lecture:
"The Ocean, the Sea & the Watery Part of the World, from the Bottom of the Ocean to the Eye of the Storm." A Painter Wonders about the Relationship between Man and the Sea.
Kim Nekarda (Artist in Residence),

01.11.2017, 18.00 Uhr (nicht öffentlich)Fellow Lecture:
How to Overcome the Frustrating Impossibility to Write a Play Whose Characters Are Smarter than Their Author
Rebekka Kricheldorf (Writer in Residence),

09.03.2016, 18.00 Uhr (nicht öffentlich)Fellow Lecture:
Why Do we Get Lost and How Do we Find our Way? The Science of Models and Representations of Space
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wai-Tat Fu (Fellow) and Dr. Franz-Benjamin Mocnik (Twin Fellow),